Identity Concealment May Discourage Health-Seeking Behaviors: Evidence From Sexual-Minority Men During the 2022 Global Mpox Outbreak.

People who conceal their stigmatized identities often experience worse physical health. One possibility for why is that concealment may render certain health-seeking behaviors more difficult. We tested this possibility during the 2022 global mpox outbreak, a public-health emergency that disproportionately affected sexual-minority men. We recruited adult sexual-minority men from Prolific at two time points near the outbreak's peak and attenuation (n = 864 and n = 685, respectively). We found that men who concealed their minority sexual orientations were less likely to (a) receive a vaccine to protect against mpox, (b) receive an mpox test, and (c) report having received an mpox vaccine. The relationship between concealment and vaccine receipt was serially mediated by reduced community connectedness and reduced knowledge of mpox resources. We call for thoughtful consideration of how to reach stigmatized groups with public-health resources, inclusive of those who conceal.

Interpersonal traits and the neural representations of cognitive control in the prefrontal cortex.

Adaptive interpersonal functioning relies on the effectiveness of behavioral and neural systems involved in cognitive control. Whether different subcomponents of cognitive control and their neural representations are associated with distinctive interpersonal dispositions has yet to be determined. The present study investigated the relationships between prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation associated with two subcomponents of cognitive control and individual differences in interpersonally relevant traits and facets within the Five-Factor Model of personality. Undergraduate participants (n = 237) provided self-ratings of interpersonal traits and underwent functional near-infrared spectroscopy to measure activation in regions-of-interest linked to subcomponents of cognitive control: the right lateral PFC and its involvement in response selection and inhibition/suppression (RS) during a go/no-go task, and the left lateral PFC associated with goal selection, updating, representation, and maintenance (GS) on a tower planning task. Multilevel models revealed that during both RS and GS, Neuroticism and Extraversion were associated with lower and higher levels of activation, respectively. Higher Agreeableness was related to lower activation during RS but also with greater activation during GS. More narrowly defined interpersonal facets subsumed within the broader trait domains were differentially associated with RS- and GS-related neural responses. Taken together, these findings highlight potential avenues of future research to better understand the ways in which the neural processes that subserve cognitive control may underlie interpersonal dispositions.

The Extended Contact Hypothesis: A Meta-Analysis on 20 Years of Research.

According to the extended contact hypothesis, knowing that in-group members have cross-group friends improves attitudes toward this out-group. This meta-analysis covers the 20 years of research that currently exists on the extended contact hypothesis, and consists of 248 effect sizes from 115 studies. The aggregate relationship between extended contact and intergroup attitudes was r = .25, 95% confidence interval (CI) = [.22, .27], which reduced to r = .17, 95% CI = [.14, .19] after removing direct friendship's contribution; these results suggest that extended contact's hypothesized relationship to intergroup attitudes is small-to-medium and exists independently of direct friendship. This relationship was larger when extended contact was perceived versus actual, highlighting the importance of perception in extended contact. Current results on extended contact mostly resembled their direct friendship counterparts, suggesting similarity between these contact types. These unique insights about extended contact and its relationship with direct friendship should enrich and spur growth within this literature.

Collective hormonal profiles predict group performance.

Prior research has shown that an individual's hormonal profile can influence the individual's social standing within a group. We introduce a different construct-a collective hormonal profile-which describes a group's hormonal make-up. We test whether a group's collective hormonal profile is related to its performance. Analysis of 370 individuals randomly assigned to work in 74 groups of three to six individuals revealed that group-level concentrations of testosterone and cortisol interact to predict a group's standing across groups. Groups with a collective hormonal profile characterized by high testosterone and low cortisol exhibited the highest performance. These collective hormonal level results remained reliable when controlling for personality traits and group-level variability in hormones. These findings support the hypothesis that groups with a biological propensity toward status pursuit (high testosterone) coupled with reduced stress-axis activity (low cortisol) engage in profit-maximizing decision-making. The current work extends the dual-hormone hypothesis to the collective level and provides a neurobiological perspective on the factors that determine who rises to the top across, not just within, social hierarchies.

Hormone-Diversity Fit: Collective Testosterone Moderates the Effect of Diversity on Group Performance.

Prior research has found inconsistent effects of diversity on group performance. The present research identifies hormonal factors as a critical moderator of the diversity-performance connection. Integrating the diversity, status, and hormone literatures, we predicted that groups collectively low in testosterone, which orients individuals less toward status competitions and more toward cooperation, would excel with greater group diversity. In contrast, groups collectively high in testosterone, which is associated with a heightened status drive, would be derailed by diversity. Analysis of 74 randomly assigned groups engaged in a group decision-making exercise provided support for these hypotheses. The findings suggest that diversity is beneficial for performance, but only if group-level testosterone is low; diversity has a negative effect on performance if group-level testosterone is high. Too much collective testosterone maximizes the pains and minimizes the gains from diversity.

Contagious Anxiety: Anxious European Americans Can Transmit Their Physiological Reactivity to African Americans.

During interracial encounters, well-intentioned European Americans sometimes engage in subtle displays of anxiety, which can be interpreted as signs of racial bias by African American partners. In the present research, same-race and cross-race stranger dyads ( N = 123) engaged in getting-acquainted tasks, during which measures of sympathetic nervous system responses (preejection period, PEP) and heart rate variability were continuously collected. PEP scores showed that African American partners had stronger physiological linkage to European American partners who evidenced greater anxiety-greater cortisol reactivity, behavioral tension, and self-reported discomfort-which suggests greater physiological responsiveness to momentary changes in partners' affective states when those partners were anxious. European Americans showed physiological linkage to African American and European American partners, but linkage did not vary as a function of their partner's anxiety. Using physiological linkage offers a novel approach to understanding how affective responses unfold during dynamic intergroup interactions.

Early cognitive decline in older adults better predicts object than scene recognition performance.

There is an ongoing debate regarding the nature of memory deficits that occur in the early stages of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). MCI has been associated with atrophy to regions that process objects, namely perirhinal and lateral entorhinal cortices. However, it is currently unclear whether older adults with early MCI will show memory deficits that are specific to objects, or whether they will also show memory deficits for other stimulus classes, such as scenes. We tested 75 older adults using an object and scene recognition task with stimulus-specific interference (i.e., exposure to irrelevant object or scene stimuli). We found an interaction (P = 0.05) whereby scores on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, a neuropsychological test with high sensitivity to MCI, shared a stronger relationship with object recognition than with scene recognition performance. Interestingly, this relationship was not modulated by the stimulus category of interfering items. To further explore these findings, we also tested an amnesic patient (DA) with known medial temporal lobe damage. Like older adults with early signs of MCI, DA showed poorer object recognition than scene recognition performance. Additionally, his performance was not modulated by the stimulus category of interfering material. By demonstrating that object memory is more predictive of cognitive decline than scene memory, these findings support the notion of perirhinal and lateral entorhinal cortex dysfunction in the early stages of MCI. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Why is concealment associated with health and wellbeing? An investigation of potential mechanisms.

RATIONALE: Many members of stigmatized groups face health and wellbeing deficits relative to their non-stigmatized peers. Ample evidence suggests that one method used by some members of stigmatized groups to manage the stigma they face-concealing their stigmatized identities-may contribute to these health and wellbeing disparities. However, precisely why concealment may contribute to these disparities is less clear. OBJECTIVE: The present work seeks to identify and distinguish between plausible explanations for why concealment may contribute to worse health and wellbeing. METHODS: In the present work, we explore a large number of plausible mechanisms that may explain why concealment is associated with worse health and wellbeing. In three studies (N = 2304) using cross-sectional (Studies 1 and 2) and longitudinal (Study 3) methods, participants were recruited from an online recruitment pool (Studies 1-3) and from an institutional recruitment pool (Study 2). Participants reported on their concealment, health and wellbeing, and constructs related to plausible explanations for the relationships between concealment and health and wellbeing. RESULTS: We find that concealment is associated with worse health and wellbeing, with generally small effect sizes. We further find that lower feelings of belonging, less social support, and lower self-esteem are the most plausible mechanisms for explaining why concealment is associated with worse health and wellbeing. When between- and within-subjects effects were distinguishable (i.e., Study 3), we observed only between-subjects relationships. CONCLUSION: Because people's choices to engage in self-protection through concealment should be respected, potential avenues for intervention to reduce minority health disparities may be more appropriately targeted at the mechanisms that account for why concealment may undermine health and wellbeing than at concealment itself. The present work makes strides towards identifying those mechanisms and thus towards addressing them.

Which Identities Are Concealable? Individual Differences in Concealability.

Concealment is a common and consequential identity management strategy. But which identities are concealable? In three studies (n = 468; obs = 4,068), we find substantial individual differences in which identities people experience as concealable. These individual differences in concealability manifest as Person × Identity interactions, such that people experience varying levels of concealability for each of their individual identities. In two additional studies (n = 465; obs = 3,784), we find that these individual differences predict the frequency and efficacy of concealment. We conclude that it is inaccurate to label entire categories of identities as either concealable or conspicuous and urge intergroup researchers to consider people's unique experiences of concealability. Pre-registrations for Studies 1 to 4 and open materials, code, and data for all studies are available on the Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/m95qu/.

The Ups and Downs of Being Us: Cross-Relationship Comparisons in Daily Life.

Cross-relationship comparisons are an integral part of relationship processes, yet little is known about the impact of these comparisons in daily life. The present research employed a dyadic experience-sampling methodology (N = 78 couples) with end-of-day surveys, end-of-week follow-up, and a 6-month follow-up to examine how individuals make cross-relationship comparisons in daily life, the cumulative impact of these comparisons over time, and the dyadic consequences of such comparisons. Participants made more downward than upward comparisons; however, upward comparisons had a more lasting impact, resulting in decreased satisfaction and optimism, and less positive self-perceptions and partner perceptions, at the end of each day and the week. Individuals who made more upward comparisons were also less satisfied 6 months later. Individuals were also affected by their partner's comparisons: On days when partners made more upward comparisons, they felt less satisfied and optimistic about their relationship and less positive about themselves and their partner.

Satisfying singlehood as a function of age and cohort: Satisfaction with being single increases with age after midlife.

A growing body of research suggests that despite the stereotype of being dissatisfied with their relationship status, there is variability in how single (unpartnered) individuals feel about singlehood. The current research examined how satisfaction with singlehood varies (linearly or nonlinearly) with age. In Study 1, we analyzed five cross-sectional samples of single individuals (N = 3,304; collected in 2020-2021) using an integrative data analysis (IDA) approach. In Study 2, we used Dutch longitudinal data (N = 3,193; collected in 2008-2019) to more precisely separate the effect of age from that of birth cohort. Study 1 demonstrated that satisfaction with singlehood was positively associated with age after midlife whereas desire for a partner was negatively associated with age. Study 2 provided conceptually consistent evidence for age-related increases in satisfaction with singlehood during mid to late adulthood (around 40s-80s). Some evidence was found in Study 2 that more recent cohorts were higher in satisfaction with singlehood, but this effect did not hold when accounting for differences in marital status. These results provide evidence for potential age effects in well-being related outcomes for singles and suggest that midlife may be an important turning point. Understanding what makes singles satisfied with singlehood at older age may be a promising approach to gain insights into how to promote well-being of the rising single population. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Subjective Identity Concealability and the Consequences of Fearing Identity-Based Judgment.

In intergroup contexts, people may fear being judged negatively because of an identity they hold. For some, the prospect of concealment offers an opportunity to attenuate this fear. Therefore, believing an identity is concealable may minimize people's fears of identity-based judgment. Here, we explore the construct of subjective identity concealability: the belief that an identity one holds is concealable from others. Across four pre-registered studies and a set of internal meta-analyses, we develop and validate a scale to measure individual differences in subjective identity concealability and provide evidence that it is associated with lower levels of the psychological costs of fearing judgment in intergroup contexts. Open materials, data, and code for all studies, pre-registrations for Studies 1-4, and online supplementary materials can be found at the following link: https://osf.io/pzcf9/.

Are we more moral than we think? Exploring the role of affect in moral behavior and moral forecasting.

Can people accurately predict how they will act in a moral dilemma? Our research suggests that in some situations, they cannot, and that emotions play a pivotal role in this dissociation between behavior and forecasting. In the current experiment, individuals in a moral action condition cheated significantly less on a math task than participants in a forecasting condition predicted they themselves would cheat. Furthermore, we found that participants in the action condition displayed significantly more physiological arousal, as measured by preejection period, skin conductance response (SCR), and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and that the underestimation effect was mediated by SCR and RSA together. This research suggests that the affective arousal present during real-life moral dilemmas may not be fully engaged during moral forecasting, and that this may account for the moral forecasting errors that individuals make. This research has the potential to inform past work in the field of moral psychology, which has largely ignored actual behavior.

Using multilevel models for the analysis of event-related potentials.

Multilevel modeling (MLM) is becoming increasingly accessible and popular in the analysis of event-related potentials (ERPs). In this article, we review the benefits of MLM for analyzing psychophysiological data, which often contains repeated observations within participants, and introduce some of the decision-making points in the analytic process, including how to set up the data set, specify the model, conduct hypothesis tests, and visualize the model estimates. We highlight how the use of MLM can extend the types of theoretical questions that can be answered using ERPs, including investigations of how ERPs vary meaningfully across trials within a testing session. We also address reporting practices and provide tools to calculate effect sizes and simulate power curves. Ultimately, we hope this review contributes to emerging best practices for the use of MLM with psychophysiological data.

When every day is a high school reunion: Social media comparisons and self-esteem.

Although past research has shown that social comparisons made through social media contribute to negative outcomes, little is known about the nature of these comparisons (domains, direction, and extremity), variables that determine comparison outcomes (post valence, perceiver's self-esteem), and how these comparisons differ from those made in other contexts (e.g., text messages, face-to-face interactions). In 4 studies (N = 798), we provide the first comprehensive analysis of how individuals make and respond to social comparisons on social media, using comparisons made in real-time while browsing news feeds (Study 1), experimenter-generated comparisons (Study 2), and comparisons made on social media versus in other contexts (Studies 3 and 4). More frequent and more extreme upward comparisons resulted in immediate declines in self-evaluations as well as cumulative negative effects on individuals' state self-esteem, mood, and life satisfaction after a social media browsing session. Moreover, downward and lateral comparisons occurred less frequently and did little to mitigate upward comparisons' negative effects. Furthermore, low self-esteem individuals were particularly vulnerable to making more frequent and more extreme upward comparisons on social media, which in turn threatened their already-lower self-evaluations. Finally, social media comparisons resulted in greater declines in self-evaluations than those made in other contexts. Together, these studies provide the first insights into the cumulative impact of multiple comparisons, clarify the role of self-esteem in online comparison processes, and demonstrate how the characteristics and impact of comparisons on social media differ from those made in other contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

An Exploratory Study of Physiological Linkage Among Strangers.

The present study explores physiological linkage (i.e., any form of statistical interdependence between the physiological signals of interacting partners; PL) using data from 65 same-sex, same ethnicity stranger dyads. Participants completed a knot-tying task with either a cooperative or competitive framing while either talking or remaining silent. Autonomic nervous system activity was measured continuously by electrocardiograph for both individuals during the interaction. Using a recently developed R statistical package (i.e., rties), we modeled different oscillatory patterns of coordination between partner's interbeat interval (i.e., the time between consecutive heart beats) over the course of the task. Three patterns of PL emerged, characterized by differences in frequency of oscillation, phase, and damping or amplification. To address gaps in the literature, we explored (a) PL patterns as predictors of affiliation and (b) the interaction between individual differences and experimental condition as predictors of PL patterns. In contrast to prior analyses using this dataset for PL operationalized as covariation, the present analyses showed that oscillatory PL patterns did not predict affiliation, but the interaction of individual differences and condition differentially predicted PL patterns. This study represents a next step toward understanding the roles of individual differences, context, and PL among strangers.

Seek help from teachers or fight back? Student perceptions of teachers' actions during conflicts and responses to peer victimization.

Previous research has shown that teachers' actions when addressing conflict on school grounds can shape adolescent perceptions regarding how well the school manages victimization. Our objective in this study was to determine how these perceptions influenced the likelihood that adolescent students would react to victimization scenarios by either seeking help from school authority or physically fighting back. Vignettes describing two events of victimization were administered to 148 ethnic minority adolescents (Latino, African American, and Asian backgrounds; 49% female) attending an urban high school with high rates of conflict. Positive perceptions of teachers' actions during conflicts--assessed via a questionnaire tapping how teachers manage student conflicts both generally and in a specific instance of strife--predicted a greater willingness to seek help from school authority, which in turn negatively predicted self-reported aggressive responses to the victimization scenarios. Path analysis established the viability of this indirect effect model, even when we controlled for sex, beliefs about the acceptability of aggression, and previous levels of reactive aggression. Adolescents' perceptions of teachers' actions during conflicts are discussed in relation to social information processing models, improving student-teacher relations, and decreasing aggression at schools.

Author Correction: Social and Physiological Context can Affect the Meaning of Physiological Synchrony.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Social and Physiological Context can Affect the Meaning of Physiological Synchrony.

Survival of many species, from insects and birds to human and non-human mammals, requires synchronized activity. Among humans, synchrony occurs even at the level of autonomic functioning; people interacting often show mutual, simultaneous changes in activity of the sympathetic or parasympathetic branches of the autonomic nervous system. Critically, autonomic reactivity predicts many mental states and, when synchronized, may reflect higher-order social processes like affiliation. Here, using data from 134 strangers interacting in pairs, we manipulated two features of social context to test their impact on synchrony in sympathetic and parasympathetic reactivity. Participants completed a knot-tying task within a collective reward ("cooperation") or individual reward ("competition") framework while conversing or not ("talking" condition). Autonomic reactivity varied by features of social context. Synchrony occurred across social contexts in both autonomic branches. We then examined how synchrony predicted affiliation. Sympathetic synchrony alone predicted affiliation yet social context and parasympathetic reactivity moderated associations between parasympathetic synchrony and affiliation. Thus, social and physiological context of parasympathetic synchrony predicted affiliation better than parasympathetic synchrony alone. We argue that social context and the degree of physiological reactivity underlying physiological synchrony, not the mere existence of physiological synchrony, are key to interpreting physiological synchrony as a social process.

Can cross-group friendships influence minority students' well-being at historically white universities?

Past research has demonstrated the negative impact of race-based rejection sensitivity (RS-race) on institutional belonging and satisfaction among minority-group students in predominantly White universities. Given research documenting the benefits of cross-group friendship for intergroup attitudes, we tested whether friendships with majority-group peers would attenuate the effects of RS-race within these contexts. In a longitudinal study of African American students (Study 1), cross-group friendships with majority-group peers buffered students high in RS-race from lack of belonging and dissatisfaction at their university. An experimental intervention (Study 2) that induced cross-group friendship replicated the findings and established their specificity for minority-group students. We discuss implications for efforts toward diversifying educational settings.